The group Quercus – with singer June Tabor, saxophonist Iain Ballamy and pianist Huw Warren – has won the German Record Critics’ Album of the Year prize – the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik - for its self-titled debut album, which takes a fresh and improvisational approach to folk song from traditional and contemporary British sources.

In the course of the year three additional recordings released by ECM have been selected in the quarterly shortlists of the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, whose independent honorary jury is comprised of 145 journalists from Germany, Austria and Switzerland voting in 29 categories: